I woke way early this morning to take a long walk, refresh my gps skills, and practice with my Nikon 800 rangefinder. Old injuries are catching up with me but if I want to get out and hunt I need to take some long walks.
I fired up the Garmin 530HCx and checked to see what time sunrise was going to happen. I scrolled to the Trip Computer page and I have one default box which I switch back and forth from Sunrise to Sunset times. It displayed Sunrise time at 0630, which meant I had a couple hours to wait before starting out. I scrolled over to the Satellite Page and I was receiving a full 12 Satellites in the house. Not bad at all.
I was set to go when I went out the door, with my gps, rangefinder, cellphone, and long, thick Manzanita walking stick. As I made the turn down to the stream I was hit with the strong drift of skunk in the air. I just about turned around and went back home, I am glad that I did not.
As I walked out the door I noticed that the acorns had started to fall, a good indicator that the deer will be like vacuum cleans in the yard.
I stopped at the stream to check the gps. I had reset the Trip Computer Page before starting out, on the Reset page there are Nine items showing, Six Resets, One Clear Track Log, all of which I have selected. There are three deletes that I do not have selected. When I start out on a hunt or a hike I want a clear track log so that it shows on the map. If I want to save a Track Log I can select the Track Icon and save it, and have it show currently or store it.
I had calibrated the electronic compass and altimeter yesterday. I use these walks for redundancy so when I am in the woods I know what to expect from my equipment.
About a mile out I was at a vantage point from which I hoped to see some deer. I spotted some movement right on an edge which was still in early morning shaded. I took a look with my six power, rangefinder. I wished that I had 10x40 Leopold binoculars. I could see there were three small bucks over there but detail was hard to come by. I was satisfied with the 199 yard range the unit display. As the bucks moved around within the viewing area the range varied from 197 yards to 214 yards.
The morning sun was hitting me in the right shoulder/eye area. I found that cupping my left hand next to my eye and the eye piece helped. It appeared the darker of the three bucks was the largest physically. Suddenly the two smaller bucks locked horns and started pushing.
My first thought was this is September 6, not mid or late October. The larger of the two small bucks was also the smarter. Whenever they broke contact he would end up on the uphill side. At this point I was rather frustrated with the rangefinder as a viewing instrument. A few minutes of getting pushed around convinced the down slope buck to leave.
The winner returned to the area where he started from; it appeared that the two remaining bucks were feeding. Suddenly they were head to head pushing and shoving. One than the other would go to his knees, and twice I seen each buck flop on the ground. You would have thought the one that went down broke his neck.
They were both up, when they decided to leave and they faded out of sight.
I spotted some does and fawns coming out in the open about 100 yards West of where the bucks had been. They came out in full sunlight and details of the animals were easily picked up by the 6x rangefinder. They were from 154 yards to 187 yards.
Moved up in the area the bucks had been caught my attention. A buck with a tall, wide, rack came into view, followed by a large buck. They appeared to be feeding and checking out the area the combat had taken place. I do not know if the smell of the earlier struggles excited them or what, but suddenly they were going at it. It lasted a very short time and they walked out of sight.
This was a good lesson for me; when out hunting do not depend on the rangefinder to do the job of a good pair of binoculars. But it also demonstrated that had I been hunting the rangefinder did what it was design to do, it gave me the range. The correct hold with a scope rifle would have done the job. The scope with a larger objective lens, and turned up to 9 or 10x should also help identify the better buck.
I went to the Main Menu on the gps and selected the home Waypoint.
Before I went in the door I checked the temperature display on the gps, and the pressure reading on the altimeter. I then went in a checked a local weather station for temperature and pressure on my computer. The temperature was right on, and the pressure was within .01.
